Halakha Keluaran 33:20: Shulchan Shel Arba & Mishneh Torah, Repentance

What goes for this blessing, al netilat yada’im, that it is worded with both the explicit second person singular pronoun “You” and the “hidden” pronoun implicit in the third person singular past tense verb form,⁴²The original Hebrew is much more elliptical: “be-lashon nigleh ve-nistar.” These are technical grammatical terms. See note 46. is the rule for the rest of the blessings that are fixed according to this formula. This is the secret of blessings, that “the World” is what “sanctified us by His commandments,” and we bless it with the phrase melekh ha-‘olam – “King of the World,” and thus you will find it in the Song at the Sea, “Adonai yimlokh le-‘olam va’ed” – “YHWH will be King for ‘olam forever.”⁴³Ex 15:18, ordinarily translated “The Lord will reign forever and ever” (JSB). And this has been evoked by the expression “YHWH will be King,” the word “world” and the word “forever.” This is a reference to the three names for God in “The Thirteen Attributes,” which is similarly evoked by the expression “Barukh YHWH ha-mevorakh le-‘olam va’ed” – “Blessed be the Lord to Whom blessing is due as ‘World’ forever,”⁴⁴That is, the usual communal liturgical response to the call to worship: “Barekhu et YHWH ha-mevorakh.” Clearly, R. Bahya is interpreting it midrashically, not in its ordinary sense. and likewise in the prayer “Aleynu le-shabe’ah” by the expression, “Before the Kings of Kings, the Holy One Blessed be He, Who spread out the heavens and established the earth.”⁴⁵Here too, the title melekh (King) is associated with “the World,” that is, “the heavens…and earth” which He spread out and established. It is precisely in this manner that the phrasing of blessings was fixed and ordered. But for the experts on the literal meaning of the text, it seems grammatically inconsistent, since it would be better to say, “us whom You sanctified and by Your commandments You commanded.”⁴⁶Asher kidashtanu bi-mitzvotekha vetzvitanu as opposed to asher kidshanu bi-mitzvotav ve-tzivavanu. However, there are pretty good reasons for it to be phrased exactly as it is with its literal meaning, in order to fix in the heart that the Holy One Blessed be He is both revealed and hidden:⁴⁷Nigleh ve-nistar, which are also the grammatical terms R. Bahya uses at the beginning of this paragraph. See note 41.revealed in regard to His ways and actions; hidden in regard to His essence and His very Selfhood. Therefore you will find that when Moses Our Teacher (peace be upon him) asked about knowing Him (may He be Blessed) in regard to his ways, he said to Him, “Pray let me know Your ways.”⁴⁸Ex 33:13. He replied, “I will make all My goodness pass before you.”⁴⁹Ibid., 33:19. But when he asked to know Him in regard to his very Selfhood, and said to Him, “Oh let me behold Your Presence,”⁵⁰Ibid., 33:18. He replied, “You cannot see My face.”⁵¹Ibid., 33:20. He explained to him these two ways: that He is revealed, and that it is possible to conceive of Him in regard to His ways and actions; and that He is hidden in regard to His Selfhood, and there is no power or device to conceive of Him in this way. And therefore, here when we say “Barukh Atah” – “Blessed are You” – with a present participle [and the pronoun “You”], we should focus on how He (May He be Blessed) is revealed through His actions. And when we continue speaking using the third person singular (be-nistar), saying “asher kidshanu bi-mitzvotav ve-tzivanu” – “who sanctified us by His commandments and commanded us” – we should focus on how He (May He be Blessed) is hidden and invisible to our power of conception. An analogy to this is that the sun, which is one of His servants,⁵²R. Bahya’s Hebrew wordplay here “she-ha-shemesh she-hu ehad mi-shamsav” is lost in translation.and of which human beings can conceive through its actions, such as how it works in the lower world with its heat on the speaking species, animals, and plants, and through its light and heat. And thus it is written, “nothing escapes (nistar) his heat.”⁵³Ps. 19:7 (JSB); “his” refers to the sun. But if trying to conceive the sun itself, one looks into the light itself, the light of his own eyes will be extinguished, and understand this! So in order to hint at Him being revealed and hidden, Scripture has said, “And your faithful ones shall bless You,”⁵⁴Ps. 145:10. that is to say, “in this way they shall bless You:” revealed and hidden, and this what is meant by “They shall talk of the majesty of Your kingship [kevod malkhutkha],”⁵⁵Ibid., 145:11. using the present tense, to teach about Him being revealed.⁵⁶Actually, in the Hebrew the verb is in the imperfect tense. And it said, “to make His mighty acts known among men,”⁵⁷Ibid., 145:12. to teach about Him being hidden.

And this was the subject of what Moses asked when he said, “Please, let me behold Your Presence!”⁵⁰Ex 33:18. Here it should be asked, was Moses asking for something possible or impossible? If for something possible, why did God refuse him and say, “You cannot see my face”?⁵¹Ibid., 33:20. And if for something impossible, why did he ask? And the answer to this strictly speaking, is that Moses sought to perceive something while he was still in a material body what he would perceive only after he had been separated from matter. And the reason that it occurred to him to ask was because he saw that he had already stood on Mt. Sinai for forty days, and the power of his flesh had attenuated and the earthy matter in him weakened with the increase of light over him, by which the beams of light shone from his face. So he asked while he was still made of matter as if he were not, that he not be hindered from perceiving what he would perceive after the separation (of his soul from his flesh). And the Holy One Blessed be He replied to him, “For man may not see me and live,”⁵²Ibid. that is to say, no matter what, because you are still a man, it is impossible for you to perceive while you’re still material what you will perceive only afterwards. And so they said in the Midrash,⁵³Sifra, beginning of Vayikra 2. “‘For man may not see me and live:’⁵⁴Ibid. while alive they do not see, but upon their death the do see.” And this is after the separation of the soul from its material form. And it is possible to specify further that “upon their death” means when they are about to die, as in the topic they discussed in Midrash Deuteronomy Rabbah Parashat Ekev,⁵⁵Though it doesn’t appear in the printed editions of Deuteronomy Rabbah (Chavel). “How abundant is the good that You have in store for those who fear You.⁵⁶Ps 31:20. ‘It happened that when R. Abbahu was about to die, he saw the gift of his reward, what the Holy One Blessed be He was going to give him in the time to come, and all the good prepared for the righteous themselves in the time to come. So when he saw all these consolations which had been prepared, he exclaimed, “All these are for Abbahu!” and immediately he desired to die, and began reciting: “How abundant is the good that You have in store for those who fear You.”⁵⁷Ibid.

Peradventure, thou wilt ask: "The Holy One, blessed is He, does he not know what it will be before it will come to pass? Did he know whether a certain person will be either just or wicked, or did He not know it? If he knew that he would be just, then it would be impossible for him not to be just? If thou wilt say that He did know that he would be just but that it is possible for him to be wicked, lo, He did not know the matter clearly? Know, that the answer to this question is longer in measure than the earth and broader than the sea, and many great elements and ranking mountains are suspended thereon; but it is essential that you know this fundamental matter which I outline. In the second chapter of the treatise of Fundamentals of the Torah it was already elucidated that the Holy One, blessed is He! does not know of things with a knowledge which exists outside of Himself, like, for instance, the sons of man do, for they and their knowledge are two separate things; but, He, may His Name be exalted! and his knowledge are One, and it is not within the power of the knowledge of man to attain this matter clearly, and even as it is not within the power of man to attain and find the truth of the Creator, even as it is said: "For man shall not see Me and live" (Ex. 33.20), even so it is not within the power of man to attain and find the knowledge of the Creator. This is even what the prophet said: "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways, saith the Lord" (Is. 55.8). This being so, it is not within our intellectual power to know in what manner the Holy One, blessed is He! knows all the creatures and their actions, but we do know without a doubt that man's behavior is in the hand of man, and that the Holy One, blessed is He! neither draws him nor issues edicts against him to do as he does. And, not solely because of having accepted the religion do we know that there is no predestination, but even by clear evidence of the words of wisdom. Because thereof it is said in prophecy that man is judged for his actions according to his actions, whether they be good or evil, and this is the very foundation upon which all the words of prophecy depend.⁸Shabbat, 63b; Berakot, 33b. G.